After having replaced Google with Yahoo as the default search engine for its web browser in the US, Mozilla has now announced that the Russian version of Firefox browser will soon be witnessing Yandex becoming as its default search engine, scraping of Google.

The agreement comes as a part of Mozilla’s new strategy to promote choice by making locally relevant search engines the default in various countries. Earlier, Mozilla made a similar attempt where it replaced Google with Yandex as default search engine in Russia.

Denelle Dixon-Thayer, SVP Business and Legal Affairs Mozilla, said-

We have a commitment to make Firefox a browser for everyone, with more choice, empowering the users. Last year, we ended our practice of having a single global default search provider and have in turn adopted a more local and flexible approach in search partnerships.

Yandex is a Russian Internet company which operates the largest search engine in Russia with about 60% market share in that country. It also develops a number of Internet-based services and products. Yandex is ranked as the 4th largest search engine worldwide, based on information from Comscore.com,

Milena Djuričić, COO Yandex said-

We’re very happy to partner with Mozilla and proud that they’ve chosen us as their partner in search. We have been emphasizing the importance of choice for users in the search engine market since our launch in Turkey, significantly improving our search experience for the Turkish audience all along. It is thrilling to see our efforts bearing fruit once more with this partnership, an important indicator that we have been doing it right.

Popularly known as Russia’s Google and with nearly 60% of market share in Russia , Yandex also has a very large presence in Ukraine and Kazakhstan, providing nearly a third of all search results in those markets and 43% of all search results in Belarus.

The changes will be implemented with Firefox’s next update, planned for the week of March 30th.